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Tuesday, 20 June 2017

AL-QAEDA-LINKED JIHADISTS CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR MALI RESORT ATTACK

AL-QAEDA-LINKED
JIHADISTS CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR MALI RESORT ATTACK

An Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist
alliance claimed responsibility Monday for an attack on a tourist resort near
Mali's capital that left five people dead, including members of a European
Union mission to the country.

The Group to Support Islam and
Muslims, a fusion of jihadist groups with previous Al-Qaeda links, said in a
statement three of its "martyrs" had killed Westerners in Sunday's
assault on the Kangaba Le Campement resort. The group, also known as Jamaat
Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimeen in Arabic, said the attackers were from the Fula
ethnic group and battled for "many hours" at the popular eco-lodge
near Bamako, which it termed a site of "debauchery".

Their statement was quickly
picked up by extremist monitor SITE and two Mauritanian news agencies known for
reporting on the region's jihadist activity, after being posted on the group's
Telegram channel. Three foreigners, a Malian civilian and a Malian soldier were
killed in the latest high-profile assault in north and west Africa targeting
locals and tourists, including in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.

Witnesses said EU and UN staff
raised the alert to speed up the deployment of Malian and French special forces
when the shooting began at Kangaba. Some assailants had shouted "Allahu
Akbar" (God is Greatest), according to other witnesses interviewed. EU
foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, speaking in Luxembourg, confirmed two
of the victims were EU staff, a Portuguese soldier who was training troops in
the Malian army and a Malian woman.

- INVESTIGATION OPENS -

Prosecutor Boubacar Sidiky Samake
said other victims were a Chinese man, a Malian woman and a Portuguese man who
died from bullet wounds, while a man from Cameroon died of a heart attack at
the scene. Samake also announced that a criminal investigation has been opened
and that Kalashnikovs, a pistol and ammunition had been retrieved from the site
of the atttack.

At least four suspected jihadists
have been placed in custody while four attackers were killed during the
incident, Security Minister Salif Traore told. Traore said 36 hostages, mostly
French and Malian, were freed, but around 20 members of Mali's Special Forces
remained at the eco-lodge Monday.

Kangaba is known to be popular
with expatriates. The Portuguese soldier who died was among off-duty members of
the EU's army training mission in Mali, and of MINUSMA, the United Nations
peacekeeping force in the country. A Kangaba employee described ushering
clients into a hiding place, a possible explanation for the relatively low
death toll compared with the lives lost in previous assaults on tourist targets
in west Africa. Among those saved Sunday were two Spaniards, two Dutch and two
Egyptian nationals, according to the security ministry.

- US WARNING -

Domestic and foreign forces
deployed in Mali's troubled north and centre have been repeated targets of
jihadist forces, but attacks on civilians in and around the capital are rare,
with the last major incident in November 2015 when gunmen stormed the Radisson
Blu hotel in Bamako. Samake said Monday that the Kangaba attack "bore all
the hallmarks" of the Radisson Blu assault.

That siege, which left 20 people
dead, led to the government imposing a state of emergency which has been in
place more or less ever since. Earlier this month, the US embassy in Bamako had
warned about "a possible increased threat of attacks against Western
diplomatic missions, places of worship" and other places frequented by
Westerners. In January, Kangaba's owner Herve Depardieu had complained about
the "alarming security information" issued by foreign consulates. In
a sign of Mali's ongoing instability, one soldier was killed and three wounded
on Monday in the northern town of Bamba, in what the armed forces said was yet
another "terrorist attack".

- NEW ANTI-TERROR FORCE -

In 2012, Mali's north fell under
the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda who hijacked an ethnic
Tuareg-led rebel uprising, though the Islamists were largely ousted by a
French-led military operation in January 2013. Since then, jihadists have
continued to mount numerous attacks on civilians and the army, as well as on
French and UN forces stationed there.

The unrest has continued despite
a 2015 peace deal between the government and Tuareg-led rebels that aimed to
tackle some of the grievances held by separatists in the north. Despite the
presence of the 12,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission and French troops serving
in a separate counter-terrorism force operating across the Sahel region,
instability is growing.

France is pressing the UN
Security Council to quickly adopt a resolution to fund and support a new
African anti-jihadist force in the Sahel, comprising troops from Mali, Niger,
Chad, Mauritania and Burkina Faso. But Washington says the resolution is too
vague. As the leading financial contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, it
also wants to tighten spending.

After paying homage to victims,
African Union Commission (AU) Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat on Monday described
"the crucial importance of the Security Council's support to the
collective efforts of the countries of the region," referring to the
proposed resolution. Mogherini, who has promised 50 million euros ($56 million)
to back the new force, said Monday that Europeans and Africans were
"brothers and sisters" in the fight against terror.